Monday, October 19, 2015

Here's an update on our good pal, Greg Germani. As many of you know, he was run over on his bicycle on the way home from work last year. He's still at home recovering and I think he would really enjoy hearing from all of us here at Ichiban.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Just in time for Halloween, enjoy 101 horror & sleaze movie trailers from the Ichiban era. And don't forget to tune in to Ichiban on Saturday, Oct. 31st at 6 PM for the dusk to dawn - trick or treat explosion!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Huey "Piano" Smith, owner of a black belt in
gobbledygook, was at the top of his game in Don't You Know Yockomo.

The other day my friend Pete Menchetti spun a cool version I
didn't know, by cute New Zealander Dinah Lee. It cracks me up to hear her make
her way (rather effectively for a kiwi) through Huey's goofy New Orleans lyrics.
Her version reached #1 in Australia and New Zealand in 1964. And here's a nice live clip.

According to this blog, the Y-word comes from
"Jockomo" as found in the song cut in 1953 by James "Sugar
Boy" Crawford : Jock-A-Mo.

That number was later a hit for the Dixie Cups as Iko Iko. Here's a live clip.

They nonetheless continued their campaign to bring Huey's music to the British public with a somewhat more successful cover of Don't You Just Know It. But even their clever renaming as Don't Ha Ha was not sufficient to make it a hit. And if that's not enough, here's a live clip !

* As a particularly astute reader pointed out, the chicks in the Julie D. clip are actually the Parisiennes.